How to Color Code Your College Planner

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

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Hello my friends! I'm so excited for today's post because...ORGANIZATION. If you've been following me for awhile, you know that organization is my thing. I love to plan, and I love to color code. I did a post all about planner organization awhile ago, and I got some emails from readers asking me about color coding. I know, color coding your entire planner seems like an endless process, but I promise that a little extra time color coding will make a huge difference! I'm going to show you my whole color coding system today, so I hope it will help inspire some of you guys to try it out!

The right supplies

Let's first talk about this... the supplies. I have struggled to find the perfect pens and markers for my beloved planner. I feel like my pens are always running out of ink, or like they don't write quite vibrant enough.

These pens write so flawlessly and vibrantly, delivering gorgeous writing. Both the FriXion ColorSticks and FriXion Color Marker Pens erase cleanly without any wear and tear on the paper or annoying eraser shavings.

I don't know about you guys, but I am ALWAYS messing up in my planner. Being a bit of a perfectionist, the ugly crossed out pen marks or scribbles would bother me every time I opened my planner. Since discovering these pens, I'm able to have as many do-overs as needed until I get it right! Due date has changed? No problem. Meeting canceled? All good. Because I can just ERASE it.

Commit to a system

It took me a few tries before I was totally pleased with my color coding system, so it's okay if you need to try a few things out first.

There are a few options when it comes to color coding your planner. You can be an extreme organization freak (like me!) or you can be a little more low-key. Whichever one if you style (no judgements) will work perfectly. I use the FriXion ColorSticks Erasable Gel Ink Pens for writing down tasks and assignments in my planner.

You can either...

Assign a color to each class. This is what I do guys, no joke. My planner is a mesh of color after color, but it makes a whole lot of sense to me. I assign one color to work, one to social, one to reminders/appointments, and one to each class.

And yes, my planner is a rainbow.

Thank goodness the FriXion ColorSticks come in 10 different colors!

Or...

Assign one color for school, and other colors for social and work. If you're not as into the color coding thing as I am, you may want to be a little less crazy about it. Instead of assigning a color to each class, you can just assign one general color to everything school related, a color to everything social related, and perhaps a color for everything work related.

Assign priority

This is something I started doing at the end of last semester because I found myself writing things over and over again and forgetting how important it was that I get that specific task done ASAP. I use the FriXon Colors Erasable Marker Pen Packs to mark a small square next to each task with the color of priority I want to give it.

Red: Of course, red is high priority items. I'll use this if an assignment is literally due either that night or the next day so that I know it needs to get done as quickly as possible.

Yellow: I use yellow for items that aren't due for a bit, but I want to maybe start working on if I have time.

Blue: I put blue next to items that I do want to get done soon (maybe they will be red the next day) but it is not absolutely vital that I get that thing done right away.

August might be pretty blank because pretty much all I'm doing is working at my internship, but come September the monthly calendar will be a lovely rainbow again!

Stick to it!

Color coding your planner can honestly be time consuming, but I promise it is so worth it. I feel so much more organized when I keep everything color coded. If you've struggled with organization at all in college, this is a great way to get things together and keep track of all your assignments and exams in a practical way.